The Dolomites Ride 1: The Sellaronda, 46 miles and 7008’ of vertical (should have been 38 miles & only 5700’ but I took a wrong turn)

The Dolomites are incredible. The mountains are vertical granite rock faces jutting into the sky out of a rolling blanket of deep green grass. It’s quite something. Particularly given the fact that there are these beautiful roads winding amongst all the peaks.

On the second descent it started raining, then it turned into frozen rain, and then hail, and when I came to a turning option I went the wrong way. Dave was behind one of the switchbacks, so he didn’t see my error. This resulted in me going downhill around 14 switchbacks only to end up in a small village that I immediately knew was the wrong one.

So, back up I went, in the rain. But, because I was climbing for an hour, I generated enough body heat to balance out the cold and wet, and it actually didn’t feel all that bad. The rain cleared, and I was able to enjoy the amazing beauty of this area.